A ChucksConnection Film Review

The Boys From Brazil

Barry Kohler is a young American Nazi hunter.

The Boys from Brazil is an unusual mystery along the lines of the
Odessa Files about a post World War II plot to revive world
Nazism. The story begins in Peru, where a young American, Barry
Kohler (Steve Guttenberg), inspired by the writings of Nazi-hunter
Ezra Lieberman (Sir Laurence Olivier), has come to track down
Nazis who had fled to South America after the war, and still maintain
an active underground organization. Kohler has been tracking the
comings and goings of various Nazis, and is surprised to see the
arrival of Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) for some sort of summit
meeting at the luxurious home of one of the Nazi leaders. He successfully
places a bug in the room, and is able to tape record the meeting
because of a transmitter placed in a cheap portable radio which
he gives to a young Peruvian boy who works in the household. The
plot he overhears is incredible: over the next two and one half
years, 94 adult males with much younger wives and adolescent sons
are to be systematically murdered around their 65th birthdays.
When the boy accidentally moves the radio dial to the frequency
of the transmitter, the surveillance is discovered by the Nazis
and a frantic search begins for the source of the leak. Kohler
escapes and hurries back to his hotel to transmit his finding
to Lieberman, but the Nazis ruthlessly track him down, and he
is found and murdered, while in the process of playing the tape
of the meeting over the phone.

Barry overhears some of Dr. Mengele's plot.

After this opening sequence, the full
extent of Mengele's plot is revealed. Mengele, who had conducted
grotesque genetic experiments on Jews and other concentration
camp prisoners during the war, had taken genetic material from
Adolf Hitler and created human clones of him who were brought
to term and then placed in families that had the same character
traits as Hitler's parents: an older domineering father who was
a minor official and a much younger doting mother. The father
died at age 65, so all of the fathers of the adopted children
must also die, so that the children will have the same family
history as Adolf Hitler. Although Lieberman at first dismisses
the claims of Kohler, he is gradually convinced that there is
a conspiracy, especially when Kohler's cousin arrives in Vienna
to report that Kohler is missing and presumed dead. The film then
becomes a race between Mengele and his agents to complete their
plot before Lieberman can discover the truth of their conspiracy
to create new Adolf Hitlers.

The Boys from Brazil is well acted, with Gregory Peck giving a disturbing
and chilling performance as the fanatical and vindictive Dr. Mengele.
This was a very different role for Peck, who normally plays All-American
hero types, and it is clear that he relished the chance to play
a real villain. Laurence Olivier is also impressive in his Oscar-nominated
role as the skeptical elderly Jew, Ezra Lieberman, who most of
the world wishes would just go away. Lieberman doesn't believe
what he is being told by Kohler until it is too late, but once
convinced that there is some truth to his allegations, doggedly
pursues the truth until he discovers the full extent of the conspiracy.
The other Nazi characters are suitably ruthless and brutal, giving
you a rude reminder of the contempt that they held for most of
the world. Jeremy Black presents us with the right combination
of arrogance and adolescent behavior in his multiple roles as
some of the young cloned boys, giving the audience a supposed
glimpse of what the young Adolf Hitler might be like in today's
world. If nothing else, this film produced in the late 1970s,
is a prophetic and convincing argument against human cloning.

Best Chucks Scene

After his surveillance is discovered, Barry hurries back to his hotel room.

This film really falls into the category of "heroes wear chucks". Barry Kohler wears them during his brief appearance at the beginning of the film, when he discovers part of the Nazi plot, and tries to convey it to Lieberman. Unfortunately, he becomes the first victim of the Nazis in their attempts to carry out Mengele's plan. As a result there isn't a lot of chucks "footage" to be seen. The best scene is where Kohler is racing back to his hotel to pass on his information, and you see him racing through various corridors and up the stairs in his navy blue chucks.

Barry goes into his room to pass on his discovery to Ezra Lieberman in Vienna.

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